anatomy

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English [edit]

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Etymology [edit]

From French anatomie, from Latin anatomia, from Ancient Greek ἀνατομία, from ἀνατομή (anatome, dissection), from ἀνά (ana, up) + τέμνω (temnō, I cut, incise) (surface analysis ana- + -tomy), literally “cut up”.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

anatomy (plural anatomies)

  1. The art of studying the different parts of any organized body, to discover their situation, structure, and economy; dissection.
  2. The science that deals with the form and structure of organic bodies; anatomical structure or organization.
    • Dryden
    • Let the muscles be well inserted and bound together, according to the knowledge of them which is given us by anatomy.
      Animal anatomy is also called zomy or zootomy; vegetable anatomy, phytotomy; and human anatomy, anthropotomy.
  3. A treatise or book on anatomy.
  4. The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts; analysis; as, the anatomy of a discourse.
  5. (colloquial) The form of an individual, particularly a person, used in a tongue in cheek manner, as might be a term used by a medical professional, but in a markedly a less formal context, in which a touch of irony becomes apparent.
    "I went to the Venice beach body building competition and noticed the competitor from Athen, and boy oh boy lemme tell ya, that's what a call classic Greek anatomy."
  6. (archaic) A skeleton, or dead body.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society 2006, vol. 1 p. 68:
      So did the Ægyptians, who in the middest of their banquetings, and in the full of their greatest cheere, caused the anatomie of a dead man to be brought before them, as a memorandum and warning to their guests.

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